New Ford Falcon First Drive: "Best Large Car Down Under"

[Aych Es Vee]

http://www.carpoint.com.au/

Words - Mike Sinclair

Blue Oval fans can exhale... The new FG range is on the road, and it's good... Very good

Its styling is arguably too derivative and the inline six is already destined for the big engine plant in the sky, but there's life in the Falcon yet. Fresh from around 450km in a range of Ford's new FG sedan six-cylinder models, we can vouch for the effectiveness of Australia's newest large car.

In fact, while we've driven the car in isolation -- but on roads we know well -- we'd go so far to say Ford now builds the best large car Down Under.

Over the next week we'll bring you more details on the new Falcon family, including the single V8 sedan offered -- the XR8. They'll be drive impressions on the base model XT, the Fairmont-replacing user-chooser-focused G-Series range (G6, G6E and G6E Turbo) and the XR sporties, including full specs and confirmation of pricing and options.

In the meantime we felt it important to get our impressions to you as soon as possible.

And they're good... Ford says it sought leadership for the FG range in key areas such as ride and handling, NVH (noise vibration and harshness) and real world performance including fuel economy and safety. While we might argue about the effectiveness of the company's crash rating and safety communications at Tuesday's debut of the first production FGs (see more here), we've got few qualms in giving the range a thumbs up in terms of its refinement and dynamic ability.

In short, the car is improved from the BF (and its variants) in a number of key areas. In our opinion it now shades Holden's VE Commodore in terms of an overall package at base model level and above.

continued here - http://www.carpoint.com.au/car-review/2916313.aspx

Plus More Ford Falcon Reviews At Drive.com.au
And At Wheelsmag.com.au

[EldoFan]

All I'll say is that being the latecomer to the party, perhaps Ford should've set its sights on Toyota there instead of Holden?? Sure, Ford & Holden can duke it out there with cars, just like Ford & Chevy do here with trucks.....but Toyota's the king of the hill no matter what.......they need to try and ween themselves away from that rivalry and focus on the big fish....

[2b2]

^^ remember Australia not only has the new Falcon
but also gets the Mondeo & the C1-Focus

if only they had Mercurys...
guess I could bring my own badges & get someone there to make a waterfall grille... google....emigration...

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by EldoFan

All I'll say is that being the latecomer to the party, perhaps Ford should've set its sights on Toyota there instead of Holden?? Sure, Ford & Holden can duke it out there with cars, just like Ford & Chevy do here with trucks.....but Toyota's the king of the hill no matter what.......they need to try and ween themselves away from that rivalry and focus on the big fish....

I'm sure Ford is happy stealing ANYONES sales, and Holden might very well be an easier target than Toyota. At the same time, Holden has the best selling car in Australia, and the Falcon is as a 100% direct competitor to the Commodore, which means that thay actually ARE aiming pretty high with this rivalry.

[Rick_VT]

Well im happy that ford made a great falcon cause now Holden will have to try harder with the Commodore and make it better again, win win for anyone who buys them

[mikmak]

^^^ Exactly

[Michael_S]

Is the Falcon itself or a new model on its platform coming to the US? Will that be the new Taurus or the new Crown Victoria?

I think the important thing here is that Ford and GM both seem to be gradually regaining their position as makers of cars that are flat out fun to drive. That's hugely important in the image war, because for most of the last decade the German automakers were the gold standard.

[eaton53]

Chrysler 300M wants its headlights back...

[FierySolstice]

I would still get the Holden over this Ford. I just think they look more solid. But this is ten times better than the Fusion we have here. Hope Ford learns from Pontiac and Saturn and bring over their better products to the US.

[Greg Burr]

Get the fit and finish part down already.

[escapen]

Originally Posted by FierySolstice

I would still get the Holden over this Ford. I just think they look more solid. But this is ten times better than the Fusion we have here. Hope Ford learns from Pontiac and Saturn and bring over their better products to the US.

Well they are dont worry, the fiesta thats coming in late 2009 will be european built but the 2011 focus will be built in wayne MI i imagine

[MonaroSS]

Originally Posted by EldoFan

All I'll say is that being the latecomer to the party, perhaps Ford should've set its sights on Toyota there instead of Holden?? Sure, Ford & Holden can duke it out there with cars, just like Ford & Chevy do here with trucks.....but Toyota's the king of the hill no matter what.......they need to try and ween themselves away from that rivalry and focus on the big fish....

Ironically, Ford and GM may well have been much better off than they will be if they had have said to their small Aussie outposts, "you know what, things are so tough for both of us why don't you two hook up on a few projects."

Just think if Holden and Ford Australia had have thrown in with VE and Ford put their own front and rear on it, it probably would have looked uummmm, exactly like the FG. And they could have then taken the budget Ford didn't need to spend on FG and add to it Holden’s Torana budget and we could have also had a new Torana and Cortina. And then GMNA and Ford US could have both had a compact and large RWD package at half their normal cost and could have both positioned vehicles to take the challenge to Toyota.

Just a thought.

Nothing wrong with "my enemy's enemy is my friend". It's worked well in the past and will for a long time into the future.

[GMusa]

This is actually good news! Since Ford made this thing better then the Commodore, the next Commodore should be crazy awesome!

[ford&holden]

It appears territory and FG will get diesel power when Ford replaces the 4.0 inline 6 early 2010.
VE is tipped to get diesel too around 09-10.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...25742700204763

[TaHoE]

I just can't get past that old school styling. The Commodore doesn't set the bar very high, but it's at least attractive, the Falcon looks so dated.